Mt. Garfield

This week brings Dalton and me back to Grand Junction for the DOT fantasy football draft. I flirted with the idea of climbing to the swan on Grand Mesa, but forgot my day pack so decided a trip up Mt. Garfield was more prudent.

The trail to the top gains 2,000 ft. within two miles. The first section is a very steep climb up a dirt ridge. Then you travel through a hidden valley before skirting the upper ridge. From here the trail is much easier and the view from the top presents the Grand Valley from Palisade to Loma.

On the way down I passed a woman on her way up. I commented "Steep, huh". She replied, "Fucking steep!" :-0 I decided to visit the old mine which is just north of the trail. There is a fossil outcroping there and I picked out some nice shell fossils.

Then it was on to the lemon sqeezer a bit further north. This easy climb through a crack to a secluded ledge is a favorite for kids of all ages.

I was back in Grand Jct. by noon to spend the day with Matt. That night I went to the Feuerborn fantasy draft with Dave and Steve. It was my first glimpse at a keeper league. The following day was the DOT draft preceded by a two man 18 hole scramble. John and I won the tourney! Mostly due to his golfing skills, but I did manage to contribute two birdies.

Dalton did most of the drafting brain work, picking up Cory Dillon and Jamal Lewis in the first couple of rounds. Hopefully he won't have a sophmore slump with his "12 Monkeys" team.

Mount Peale

Well, my son Dalton needed his Buick Regal in Grand Junction where he could work on it with the guys who put in his engine, so I had to tow the car there with my truck this weekend. I rented a U-Haul tow dolly and decided to make it a three day weekend.

I set off at 3 AM on Saturday morning to avoid the nasty I-70 traffic. No way I wanted to be stuck in that towing a car. The trip to Grand Junction was pleasant and incident free. This afforded me the chance to cruise on to Moab for a bit of fun.

After visiting the family Saturday, I decided to climb Mount Peale in the La Salle range Sunday morning. No, it's not a 14er but it has been a goal of mine because it is the highest peak in the La Salles (and Moab is way hot in August). The best way to get to the trailhead is to go around the back side of the range through the town of La Salle and up to the pass that way. The other way is only fun if you like rough and rocky.

I must say that ascending the peak in the La Salles is much different than Colorado 14ers. I was the only one on the mountain all day. In fact there were surprisingly few campers around medicine lake. On the climb up I got off trail in an area that experienced an avalanche last winter. Quite a scene with trees uprooted and rocks thrown about. So off the trail I went and up through some steep and loose scree. My advice is to stay in the valley even if you get off trail. If you cut through the scree you will hit the main trail above (like I did.) From the summit you get excellent views of the La Salles and you can see the Henrys, Blue Mountain, the Grand Mesa and the Sleeping Ute.

The trip down I stayed on the trail. There was snow in the valley so I tried a bit of glissading. Quite a fun day all by myself!












Later that day we decided to go shooting. I had won a muzzleloader from a raffle ticket I bought from Tosha for the Little Britches Rodeo. Here are shots of Veronica and me shooting at the police range. You can see the mountain I climbed in the background.

Colorado Trail Section 21

After picking up camp we started our back country road trip to Spring Creek Pass. I was a bit worried about having enough gas, because my truck had less than half a tank (16 gal.), but we made it fine and witnessed some awesome cliffs around Cathedral. We decided to pop into Lake City and pick up some bread and beer.

On the way back up the pass, it was raining quite hard and we were leary of setting up camp in the rain. After a very cold and wet weekend in these mountains last Labor Day, we were willing to rent a cabin but could find no one to rent us one. It turned out perfectly though, because we found a camp spot at the Spring Creek Pass corral and the rain finally subsided.

The next morning we headed out for section 21, travelling east. From the highway it is a two mile uphill hike to the top of Snow Mesa. As we topped the mesa we saw three bull elk. One six point and two five points. They were quite spooky and took off after I snapped a picture. Then the trail is a 3.5 mile hike across Snow Mesa to a small pond where the trail turns North and skirts a very beautiful valley. Just before the lake we spotted a sizable herd of elk to the south. Just awesome. The trip around the valley was very cool. You can see an interesting saw tooth rock formation just below the lip of the mesa.

We had lunch at the 7 mile point and returned the way we came for a total of 14 miles. We are saving the other half of 21 for another excuse to travel down to the beautiful La Garita Wilderness.

Colorado Trail Section 20

Nick and I travelled to the Stewart Creek trailhead for a trip up San Luis Peak. We camped at the same spot as last time and got started Saturday morning at 6:30 AM. We passed a man and his 60+ dad and a group of three older gentlemen who were camped a couple of miles upstream.

We decided to make a loop of it and take a trail to the right, but we read the map wrong and ended up bushwacking up a false summit. Along the way we say two huge bucks just above timberline. It turned out all good because the adventure lead us to San Luis anyway.

I arrived at the summit at 9:20 AM to find three other hikers who had spent the night near the summit. One in their party had summitted 30+ 14ers, and had camped atop a few of them. Nick arrived 20 minutes later and we had a nice sandwich with tea alone at the top. What an awesome view from here! You can see Uncompaghre, Wetterhorn, Sneffels, Redcloud, and Sunshine. You can also see the Grand Mesa and my hunting grounds.

We started down the other side of San Luis headed for Section 20 of the Colorado trail. We passed the end point of our hike from last Labor Day. Labor Day 2004 was cold and extremely wet. It was the worst night I have ever spent in a tent, but the hike from above Creede to the San Luis peak saddle was awesome and had us looking forward to this return trip.

The trip back to camp was long, long, long. Nine miles in all. The trip is beautiful for most of the way, but the never ending valley at the end was quite a test.

Handies, Sunshine, Redcloud

This weekend Nick and I joined Brian Romig, John, and Miles for a trip up three 14ers behind Lake City. We arrived at the Mill Creek Campground Friday night and claimed a spot for our tent. It was a long drive from Denver, so we sacked out early.

Saturday morning we drove to the trailhead for Redcloud and Sunshine. The hike was beautiful up silver creek with many wildflowers, including columbines! Silver creek is aptly named. The water flowing over gray-silver rocks makes the stream totally cool looking. In the upper valley we say a really fat marmot who was not pleased with our presense. The climb is easy all the way up the valley until you get to the final ascent of Redcloud. At this point it gets a bit steeper (class 2) and we left Brian a bit behind. The order was John, Miles, Don, Nick, Brian. Topping Redcloud produced a 360 panorama of the San Juan's.

The one mile trip across the saddle to Sunshine was fun and we took some photos of the group with a sign that Brian brings on all his fourteener climbs. A couple from Utah made the climb with us. On the descent we split into two groups. John, Nick, and I decided to take the Sun Dog route, while Miles and Brian went down through the crags. The initial descent from Sunshine is steep and rocky... I'm glad we were headed downhill.

The Sun Dog was rated 2+ and offered enough scrambling to be kinda fun. At a particularly steep point, I decided to get my picture taken, turned around too quickly and took a fall. Luckily my Camelback cushioned the landing and I did not fall the full thousand feet to the valley below! John had taken a spill earlier, so only Nick made the hike clean.

That night we had beers and discussed the routes up Handies. John and Miles decided to go from the same trailhead again, while Brian, Nick, and I took the 4WD road up around to the easier ascent from American Basin. The road doesn't require 4WD, but does need some clearance. The scenery is breath-taking. There were quite a few professional photographers taking pictures of the basin. The columbine fields go on forever.

The hike up is fairly easy, but very enjoyable. You pass thru some cool looking rocks and past an alpine lake. I had the peak to myself for about 5 minutes before John and Miles arrived from the other trail. We met a hefty guy from New Mexico who summitted his first fourteener.

So much for 14ers 8,9, and 10 for me!

First Post

I decided to go ahead and use one of the big blogs so I can start posting until I find a blogging software package that I like to add to my site: www.donlyman.com.

Israel - Final Days

Bishop led a short explanation of speaking in tongues.

Bishop preached about the end times where a river will flow from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea and bring life there.

Supper with a lady from Virginia.

Saturday we walked the Via De La Rosa. The road Jesus carried his cross along. We visited each station and ended in the Church that is the alternate tomb site to the Garden Tomb. The Garden Tomb the day before where Bishop gave a sermon and we sang. A young choir was also there and they sang beautifully. We visited the tomb with the roll away stone.

After the group went on to Rome, I spent the afternoon exploring old Jerusalem. I bartered with a local merchant and bought some old Jerish coins.

Two nights before we took a stroll around with a group and each of us got a nickname. Smokie, Sweetness and Light, Fig Leafa, and me D Cup and Up.

The trip from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv is surprisingly short. Seeing the countryside was a pleasure and our trip home was cool. We flew over the Black Sea, Eastern Europe, Germany, England and on along the North Atlantic route.

Definitely a trip everyone should take. I was sad that we did not go to Rome, but it just makes it a higher priority for next time!

Israel - Day 7

On day seven we visited a scale model of the entire old city. It is an amazing replica of the second temple period. The second temple was enormous compared to the present day Dome of the Rock. It consisted of three areas. The outer area was open to all Jews and gentiles. The middle area was a Holy area reserved for Jews. The inner area called the Holy of the Holies was restricted to all but one high priest. The High Priest was often old so they would tie bells to his leg and a golden chain to his body in case he died in the Holy of Holies and nobody could get him out.

We then visited the Museum of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls are written in Aramaic and Hebrew and can still be read by modern Jews. Seeing such old documents gives a sense of culture one does not feel so deeply in Colorado (with it's 200 year anglo history.) Apologies to the Anasazi of course.

A tour of the Holocaust Museum was my second most memorable event. Such a sense of loss and evil in this place. The round room that contains hundreds of books containing the names of the 6 million Jews who were killed was overwhelming.

I made the bus late waiting for Michelle outside the bathroom. The bishop was not too pleased with me ;-) But we made it to lunch at Kibbutz Raja Rahel. This is the site of the tomb of Rachel who died in child birth.

After lunch we travelled to the Garden of Gatsemeny which was designed by Antonio Bertuzi. 12 countries donated money to build the church. Each country has a dome with their own design. The olive trees here are older than the time of Jesus.

Israel - Day 6

Our Jerusalem experience started on day six. First we visited the site of the jewish priests house where Jesus was chained in the dungeon. It is also the site of the oldest road in Jerusalem. The church on this site has many rooster pictures and sculptures in remembrance of Jesus' quote that he would be denied 3 times before the cock crowed. In Psalm 88 David predicts this scene.

We journeyed to the Dome of the Rock and got special passage from our tour guide. It is a very beautiful mosque and very inspiring. Inside is the rock that Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac on. The Muslems believe it is the place where Mohammad ascended to heaven. We were not allowed to take bibles into the square or for anyone to preach. An old muslim lady stroked Michelle's hair for good luck. To there credit the Muslims offered the Jews a chance to build a third temple on the rock, but the Jews believe that the final temple will descend from heaven.

At the Western Wall I witnessed my first Bar Mitsvahs. The Jews have large and elaborate Torah scrolls as well as boxes of prayers on their heads and shoulders. Men and women are separated at the wall and men have to wear a yamika. Michelle and I each put a prayer in the wall.

We took a tour of an archeological excavation under the Northern portion of the wall that the jews have explored. Under it is a scale model of the inner city. At one point you are closest a Jew can get to the holy of the holies. Michelle felt especially spiritual here.

Israel - Day 5

On day five we travelled to the Dead Sea. First we stopped at the Ahava plant where they make and sell cosmetics from the Dead Sea. Michelle stayed inside and shopped while I took a short hike into the desert canyon. I spotted a jackal on the hill side which was a special thrill for me. Then we passed Wadi David where David hid from King Saul.

Masada was my favorite site of the entire trip. It is a natural fortress high above the Dead Sea. On top is constructed a city which was occupied by Jews and Romans at various points in history. King Herod built it as a southern stronghold. He was "mashugane" or crazy-paranoid of the Jews since he was the Roman ruler. Later a group of jews took refuge here as one of the last holdouts of another Roman conquering of Israel. This group committed mass suicide rather than be slaves for Rome.

Finally we went swimming in the Dead Sea. It reminded me of swimming in the Great Salt Lake, only with more bouyancy. You can only stay in for about a half-hour, but it was awesome. Michelle had a good time too.